Fluid sample analysis, such as clinical sample analysis, involves several operations that may be conducted with different frequencies. For example, an analyzer may run test analyses as needed. It may reload reagents as materials are exhausted or expire. It may calibrate particular assays as a reagent lot runs out or as operating conditions change. An analyzer may run quality control specimens at fixed intervals.
An analyzer in a point of use environment may have widely varying workload. For example, in a physician's office, an analyzer might be idle much of the time. However, when a physician needs to determine a patient's condition, the physician may need or desire to know a fair number of analyte values while the patient is still present—a relatively short period of time. There is thus a need for an analysis system that can provide a number of measured values on a single sample within a short time.
To be most useful, a point of use analyzer should be available wherever and whenever needed. This may require that the analyzer be operable when carried, which in turn requires the analyzer to operate despite changes in orientation. The analyzer should be loadable with any necessary reagents for determinations on multiple samples to support calibration and quality control and to obviate cost of and need for the user carrying separate analyte-specific consumable devices. There is thus a need for an analysis system that can be preloaded with reagents and that can be stored and operated with changing orientation.
Use of an analyzer requires collection and preparation of samples. Traditional laboratory analysis collects large volumes of sample (as by venipuncture) and processes the collected sample by centrifugation, a relatively slow process that uses bulky equipment. There is a need to provide sampling devices that are compact and do not require bulky equipment or time consuming manipulation.